Thread: CA-New program launched to ID and remove ill. in san diego

New program launched to enhance identification and removal of criminal aliens in San Diego County
By U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Published: 06/01/2009

Criminal and immigration records of all Sheriff's Department inmates to be checked

San Diego County Sheriff's Department deputies today became the first law enforcement personnel in California to receive biometrics based immigration history information about inmates via the new Secure Communities program.

Secure Communities, which is administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), streamlines the process by which ICE determines if an individual in the prison system is a removable criminal alien.

Under the program, every individual booked into the three largest jails in San Diego County has their biometrics-fingerprints-checked in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) biometric system for any immigration record. Prior to the advent of Secure Communities, as part of the standard booking process, these fingerprints were only checked for criminal history information in the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) biometric system.

If any fingerprints match those of someone in DHS's biometric system, the new automated process notifies ICE and the San Diego intake site submitting the fingerprints. ICE evaluates each case to determine the individual's immigration status and takes appropriate enforcement action after offenders complete their prison terms. Top priority is given to aliens who pose the greatest threat to public safety, such as those with prior convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape, robbery, and kidnapping.

"Secure Communities is an ICE initiative to more broadly manage and modernize the processes used to identify and ultimately remove dangerous criminal aliens from our communities," said Executive Director for ICE Secure Communities David Venturella. "Our goal with this ICE effort is to use information sharing to prevent criminal aliens from being released back into the community, with little or no additional burden on our local law enforcement partners."

Secure Communities enhances the ongoing joint efforts by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and ICE to identify criminal aliens in the San Diego County Jail system and process them for deportation. As a result of those efforts, more than 6,500 criminal aliens came into ICE custody last year following their release from the San Diego County Jail system.

"The San Diego Sheriff's Department has been working side-by-side with ICE for many years in an effort to identify criminal aliens booked into our detention facilities," said San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender. "This new technology will enhance our partnership and bolster our commitment to keeping our communities safe."

Secure Communities bolsters the ongoing joint efforts by ICE and participating law enforcement agencies in the United States. Eventually, with DOJ and other DHS component collaboration, ICE plans to expand this capability to all state and local law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. Approximately 50 counties nationwide are currently participating in Secure Communities.

Secure Communities is part of DHS's comprehensive plan to distribute technology that links local law enforcement agencies to both FBI and DHS biometric systems. DHS's US VISIT Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) holds biometrics-based immigration records, while the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) contains biometrics-based criminal records.

"US VISIT is proud to support the Secure Communities program, helping provide decision makers with comprehensive, reliable information when and where they need it," said US VISIT Director Robert Mocny. "By enhancing the interoperability of DHS's and the FBI's biometric systems, we are able to give federal, state and local decision makers information that helps them better protect our communities and our nation."

"Under this plan, ICE will be utilizing FBI system enhancements that allow improved information sharing at the state and local law enforcement level based on positive identification of incarcerated criminal aliens," said FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Acting Assistant Director Jerome M. Pender. "Additionally, ICE and the FBI are working together to take advantage of the strong relationships already forged between the FBI and state and local law enforcement necessary to assist ICE in achieving its goals."

Secure Communities is a key facet of ICE's enforcement priority to identify, locate and remove criminal aliens, building on the success of the agency's Criminal Alien Program. In fiscal year 2008, ICE identified more than 221,000 potentially removable aliens incarcerated nationwide. This fiscal year, the agency anticipates spending more than $1 billion on such efforts, which in addition to Secure Communities, also includes expanding the agency's Criminal Alien Program and Fugitive Operations Program.

More information about ICE's Secure Communities effort is available at www.ice.gov.


http://www.corrections.com/news/article/21642

This is all fine and dandy, however, I'm currently more concerned about the tens of millions of illegals that never end up in the jails/prisons. What are we doing to deport them? IMO, it seem like we're doing little to nothing since Obama took officer.

Added to hompage.

If the criminal is not found in the 'system' will he be added to it?

IMMIGRATION: New program will catch illegal immigrants in jails

Federal fingerprint databases now available to local law enforcement

By EDWARD SIFUENTES - esifuentes@nctimes.com

Saturday, May 30, 2009 7:06 PM PDT

A new program launched last week will make it easier to catch illegal immigrants who are booked into San Diego County jails, immigration and law enforcement officials said.

Called Secure Communities, the program allows law enforcement agencies to take a person's fingerprints and run them through FBI and Department of Homeland Security databases to determine whether the person is in the country illegally.

For years, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, which runs the county's jails, has used Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to check the immigration status of people booked into its jails.

Now, that same information will be directly available to the Sheriff's Department and any police department with access to fingerprint databases.

Under the program, anyone whose fingerprints are checked at participating jails or local police departments will be immediately reviewed for immigration violations, said Robin Baker, Immigration and Customs Enforcement director of detention and removal operations in San Diego.

The agency launched the program in 50 counties nationwide, but San Diego County is the only one with the program in California, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the agency in San Diego.

Eventually, Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to expand the program to all U.S. jails and prisons.

The $350 million program is being paid for by the federal government, officials said.

Undersheriff Bill Gore said the department will continue to provide space in its detention facilities, including the Vista jail, for immigration agents to question inmates regarding their immigration status, Gore said.

Pedro Rios, an immigrant rights activist, said he sees potential problems in the program.

"I'm concerned that there isn't any visible oversight that will ensure that this program will not be abused," said Rios, the San Diego director of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker human rights organization.

Rios said overzealous officers might use the program to try to deport people on relatively minor violations.

But Baker said concerns about potential abuse of the program are unfounded.

He said the new program eliminates another frequent criticism: that Latinos are subjected to immigration scrutiny more often than people of other backgrounds.

Everyone booked into jails will be checked, not just those believed to have been born in another country, Baker said.

Immigration agents also will prioritize illegal immigrants who pose a threat to the public, including those convicted of major drug offenses, murder, rape, robbery or kidnapping, Baker said.

Baker said it is unclear exactly how many illegal immigrants are booked into county jails because not everyone is screened.

Agents base their reviews on a person's stated place of birth or other indications that a person might be a noncitizen.

Last year, the county sent 6,500 illegal immigrants to immigration authorities after their release from San Diego County jails, according to a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego.

In the fiscal year that ended in September, immigration agents screened about 92,000 inmates in San Diego and Imperial county jails. Of those, 10,247 people were flagged on potential immigration violations, Baker said.

Sometimes, officials said, illegal immigrants fall through the cracks, especially those who were brought to the country as children, speak flawless English and can name the schools they attended growing up, which are questions often used to detect foreigners.

By checking Department of Homeland Security databases, which were not readily available before the new program started, officers can now determine whether a person ever came into contact with the country's immigration system, including arrests, deportation orders or immigration-related crimes.

Officers also will know whether a person ever requested a visa to come to the U.S. legally, or whether someone applied to legalize his or her status ---- all of which are indications that the person is not a U.S. citizen and subject to further investigation, Baker said.

Giving that kind of information to police officers untrained in immigration law could lead to discrimination against certain immigrants, Rios said.

Bill Flores, a retired assistant sheriff and a member of the Latino activist organization El Grupo, said he was involved in implementing the first attempts to connect the Sheriff's Department to immigration databases.

Flores said he sees no problem with checking people's immigration status at detention facilities.

"Just like any program, it can be used and misused," he said.

Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511.

NORTH COUNTY TIMES

RELATED

New program will catch illegal aliens in San Diego jails

May 30, 2009

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-157820.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Feds sign up locals to help enforce immigration

October 16, 2009

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-174676.html
--------------------------------------------------------

ICE ANNOUNCES STANDARDIZED 287(g) AGREEMENTS WITH 67 STATE AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT PARTNERS

October 16, 2009

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-174677.html

RELATED

ICE-local immigration partnership to remain (L.A., CA.)

But federal authorities promise more oversight of the 287(g) program.

October 17, 2009

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-174677.html

As far as I am concerned anyone who crosses over the border is a criminal. Why wait until they are in jail to catch them and deport them? Illegal aliens are committing more crimes than anyone else.